


Not For the World

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Series: Tumblr Drabbles [10]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Post-Trespasser, These two having a normal life post-game is my jam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 13:48:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6331594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He has a thousand and one things that he could do, but suddenly they all shrink to a pinpoint when she is away. Nothing else matters except her safe return, and when she does return, Cullen can breathe out the air he isn't ever aware he's holding, and return to work as though nothing had been amiss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not For the World

**Author's Note:**

> screams THE WEDDING AND POST GAME HELP
> 
> Cullen is so precious, I love their relationship xD
> 
> I do not own _Dragon Age Inquisition_. Thanks for reading!

Cullen never quite knows what to do with himself when Evelyn is away. He has a thousand and one things that he _could_ do, but suddenly they all shrink to a pinpoint when she is away. Nothing else matters except her safe return, and when she does return, Cullen can breathe out the air he isn't ever aware he's holding, and return to work as though nothing had been amiss.

He has this trinket, an amulet she had given him that was engraved with the words of her love. He isn't even certain where she had gotten it, honestly. It's a silly thing, but everything, too, and since she had given it to him, Cullen rarely let it out of his sight. Slept with it under his pillow. Fingered it in his pocket when he was training the troops. Let it hang around his neck when he could.

Cassandra had caught him looking at it one day, when Evelyn was gone out on a quest. She had been gone for days at that juncture, which no news from the scouts. Cullen was antsy, and he was... merely looking at it. The glittering object set on his palm. And Cassandra had caught him, made this noise that was akin to _ugh_ , and Cullen had sent the amulet flying in his surprise, all gasping and blundering and embarrassment, _Maker_.

"She's only been gone for a week," she had said, and Cullen, red-faced, had only stammered: "Yes, I know, I wasn't-" but he was, he had been.

He does the same now. He looks down at the little amulet, smiling fondly at the scratches and nicks that it has accumulated along the way. He is careful, always, but it has been some time.

The front door opens, and his attention is broken from the amulet. She is home. She is _his_ home.

He strides from the bedroom, pushes himself around the corner and his smile grows effortless as he sees her. It's always like the first time. He had always thought her gorgeous. It has not changed. Cullen tips his head as though in thought, and leans against the doorway. "Welcome back."

She jumps, grip faltering on the bag she's carrying. Cullen only just lunges forward in time to get his hand on it, gripping his fingers into it for a split second before the paper tears, and the contents of the bag go spilling onto the floor anyway.

He and Evelyn look at each other. Cullen has to admit, he's in a tiny bit of shock. "Well." He lets the piece of brown paper bag still clutched in his fingers flutter uselessly to the floor. "So much for that. I hope none of it was fragile."

Evelyn is grinning at him as Cullen rises to full height again, and shakes her head. "Just the usual. Why're you lurking by the door, anyway?"

Cullen cracks a smile, leaning over to take her face in his hands. "I was waiting for you," he admits, and kisses her softly afterwards.

"I've only been gone for an hour," Evelyn protests, halfheartedly, beneath his hands. " _Someone_ has to get the groceries, when _someone else_ has such an appetite."

"Your cooking is good," Cullen replies, quick-fire, because it is. One of many things that he had never known when they had been worrying only for Corypheus.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Commander Cullen," she whispers against his cheek.

Cullen laughs and pulls away, reaching for the other bags Evelyn is still awkwardly clutching to her chest. "Perhaps chivalry, then."

She just laughs at him as he carries their groceries into their kitchen, and it is the most beautiful sound in the world. How he has deserved this woman? Cullen still isn't sure, as he sets the bags down and doubles back to help pick up the things that he had scattered onto the floor.

Their life has not been perfect, or kind, even since the events that had bound them together under the eyes of the Maker. Cullen reaches for an apple that is rolling away, and the sunlight glints off of the simple, golden band nestled around the fourth finger on his left hand. But it has been amazing, and he would not change it. Not for anything.

She surprises him when she kisses him in the kitchen. It feels much like the very first time, when he had kissed her on the battlements in Skyhold. Except now they are not surrounded by the wind whipping into their faces and his officers interrupting at the worst moments, and instead there are remnants of their life all over their home. Even when Cullen corners her back against the counter, that, too, is familiar (they had broken in this house... _ahem_... multiple times over), or when she stretches the short height distance between them, or when his hands glide down her body, caressing her sides and hips to slip beneath her thighs to lift her onto the countertop... these are good moments, these are good moments, familiar moments, and Cullen sighs softly against her lips.

This life is a beautiful one. Beautiful like her.

He threads his fingers into her hair, gently brushing it away from her face. "You are as beautiful as the day I met you," he murmurs, and strokes his thumb against her cheek.

She quirks an eyebrow. "I would have thought lacking an arm would have changed _something_."

Cullen cringes inwardly. She jokes as a coping mechanism; she jokes where he cannot. That said, it has not changed his perception of her. "If anything, it has only made you more beautiful."

Evelyn laughs and her fingers dance absently against the exposed skin near his collarbone. "Still trying the flattery angle?"

He isn't even aware it sounds like flattery, because it is true. "I'm sorry," he apologizes, and entwines his fingers with hers for a moment before bringing himself to pull away. "I'll put our things away."

"I can-"

"Don't you move a muscle." Cullen taps his finger against the tip of her nose, and is certain his smile is no less than blinding. "I like the view."

He puts away the groceries, and pecks a kiss against Evelyn's lips as he walks back and forth. He pretends he does not see her smile grow as he turns away each time. He pretends to not notice how she leans closer each time, pretends right up to the moment where he can deny her no longer and allows her to grip at his sleeve and pull him in for a proper kiss.

Their life is not perfect, and Cullen would not change it for anything.

 


End file.
